Sharks at Coyotes preview

SHARKS (28-13-7) at COYOTES (20-22-3)
10 p.m. ET; NBCSN

Sharks defenseman Erik Karlsson needs one assist to join teammate Brent Burns (43 assists) with 40 assists. It would be the fourth time in NHL history two defensemen on the same team accomplished it, and the first since Denis Potvin and Stefan Persson of the New York Islanders 40 years ago.
The Sharks are playing the second half of a back-to-back after winning 5-2 against the Pittsburgh Penguins at SAP Center on Tuesday. Tomas Hertl had his second career hat trick and his first since his third NHL game on Oct. 8, 2013.
The Coyotes had a three-game winning streak end with a 7-1 loss to the Calgary Flames on Sunday. Coyotes goaltender Darcy Kuemper goes for his fourth consecutive win.

Players to watch

Hertl has eight points (five goals, three assists) in his past five games and three goals in two games against Arizona this season.
Coyotes forward Conor Garland has six goals in his past five games, with two multi-goal games.

They said it

"We're being hungry as a group in the offensive zone. That's the biggest change this second half (of the season) so far. We've attacked a lot. We don't worry about what could happen, we try to make something happen." -- Sharks forward Joe Pavelski
"If we think big picture against Calgary, it's `Oh my god, it was 7-1.' But it was really just some factors that came into play and a couple of bad mistakes. You flush it down and now we've got San Jose and that's what we're thinking about." -- Coyotes coach Rick Tocchet

Sharks projected lines

Marcus Sorensen -- Joe Thornton -- Joe Pavelski
Lukas Radil -- Logan Couture -- Timo Meier
Evander Kane -- Tomas Hertl -- Joonas Donskoi
Melker Karlsson -- Barclay Goodrow -- Kevin Labanc
Radim Simek -- Brent Burns
Brenden Dillon -- Erik Karlsson
Tim Heed -- Justin Braun
Aaron Dell
Martin Jones
Scratched:Joakim Ryan, Dylan Gambrell
Injured:Marc-Edouard Vlasic (wrist)

Coyotes projected lines

Clayton Keller -- Jordan Weal -- Christian Fischer
Richard Panik -- Derek Stepan -- Vinnie Hinostroza
Alex Galchenyuk -- Nick Cousins -- Conor Garland
Lawson Crouse -- Mario Kempe -- Josh Archibald
Oliver Ekman-Larsson -- Niklas Hjalmarsson
Jakob Chychrun -- Ilya Lyubushkin
Jordan Oesterle -- Alex Goligoski
Darcy Kuemper
Calvin Pickard
Scratched:Laurent Dauphin, Kevin Connauton
Injured: Brad Richardson (upper body), Antti Raanta (lower body), Michael Grabner (upper body), Jason Demers (lower body), Christian Dvorak (upper body), Nick Schmaltz (lower body)

Status report

Richardson is week to week.

Stat pack

The Sharks have allowed two goals or fewer in six consecutive games. They have a 32-14 scoring advantage during their winning streak. … San Jose is 16-3-2 since Dec. 2. … Burns has five points (two goals, three assists) in his past four games and 17 points (five goals, 12 assists) in his past 10 games. … Erik Karlsson has 26 points (one goal, 25 assists) in his past 16 games. … Arizona hasn't allowed a power-play goal in seven games since Dec. 29. … Galchenyuk has 13 points (four goals, nine assists) in his past 13 games.